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With the headphones over his ears, Verse was taking a stroll through the streets of the city. Most people didn't pay him any mind, simply assuming he was a strange little boy who was a little more obsessed with Pokemon and fashion. Thankfully, Andre's manager had decided to keep the Burmy's transformation a secret for now...which meant that Verse could actually walk around the city streets and not have to worry about being mobbed by fans or paparazzi. It was a wonderfully free feeling, and he was going to take advantage of it for as long as he possibly could.

In one of his pockets, he thumbed through the music list on his MP3 player, looking for an folk song from Andre's first CD - back when he still went by Andreas - because the contrast of the older style of music played against the city's bustling people and machines often made Verse smile. He'd been people watching in the park already, and now on the actual street his curiosity was perked when he noted a gathering of people.

This was new, people rarely made semi-circles like that unless there was a fight...and granted, he couldn't exactly hear what was going on, but it didn't appear to be a fight. Making sure to say 'excuse me' or 'pardon me, please?', the Burmy boy started to make his way through the crowd, trying to see just exactly what was so interesting.

Well, isn't that pretty nifty? Another musically inclined Pokemon, much like Verse himself! He smiled as he watched the rest of the show, pulling his headphones off his ears to listen fully to the music. Hey, he knew this song...and he wouldn't realize he was humming quietly along until it had ended, and everyone around him was clapping. He joined in the applause, waiting until most of the people were gone before walking up to the canister and dropping his own donation...slowly reaching down to pick up the collections, offering it gingerly to the Meloetta.

"That was great," he said, but using their own Pokemon language, rather than speaking as a human. To those who passed, he was merely saying 'burmy' and variations thereof, over and over. "You're really good."

His smile was sweet and genuine, and his voice was kind. He meant it, and there was nothing about him that would make anyone assume he felt differently from what he said. Verse was a good, honest kid.

"That's a very noble of you...to raise money to help your friends," Verse said with a respectful nod, sticking his hands into the front pockets of his jeans once the can was taken from him.

His large eyes blinked when he was pointed at, and the Burmy boy shyly touched one hand to the horn that poked out of his bright pink hair, "Oh...t-thank you. Honestly, it gets in the way sometimes," he stammered, before latching onto that the Meloetta said about there being...well, more like himself.

"You mean there are others like me?"

Verse had been dealing with all sorts of inner torment since waking up like this, with his emotions jumping from extremes of being happy to being forlorn. He didn't want to be the only one like this - obviously, there was a very, very special Pokemon he hoped he could share this wondrous miracle with - but trying to figure out how he went from being just a normal Burmy to a Poke-kid had left him feeling hopeless.

"Do you know...how they ended up this way?"

The Burmy couldn't stop himself from softly giggling at the Meloetta's actions, the way he spun and danced. It was cute, and endearing, and Verse imagined that he must have made very good money for his cause. While the other Pokemon spoke about his friends, and how they woke up, Verse would listen very intently...amazed by the fact that their experiences were all so similar, but at the same time disappointed that it didn't appear the Meloetta would be able to explain why or how is happened in the first place.

Not one to dampen a person's spirits, Verse brought the soft and easy smile back onto his face, "I don't see why not. If it's happened to so many of us, I'm sure it could happen to you, too."

"My name's Verse, by the way...you don't have to call me something so fancy as 'Sir'."

It was so nice to have another Pokemon to interact with. Aside from Drosera, he hadn't had the chance to interact with anyone but his trainer and other humans that Andreas hung out with. It was refreshing, and made Verse just that much more dedicated to seeing his secret crush again.

"I do. I live a few blocks away with my trainer. Where do you live with your friends?"

Hey, if they all lived nearby...perhaps Verse could visit all of them more often. Little Osha here was very nice, and definitely fun to talk to.

"You...live in the alley?" Verse responded carefully, feeling a lump form in his throat.

Holymoly, they were homeless??? They didn't have a roof over their heads, or a warm place to sleep at night? Verse had assumed that Osha helped pay bills, but this...this was a completely different level! Nervously, he played with the chord of his headphones...suddenly feeling like an over-privileged heel.

"Huh?" Lost in his thoughts, he only just heard the question that was asked of him. "Oh...uhm, Andreas is nice. He's busy with his job a lot, and it's harder for me to tag along now that I'm like...this, but he takes care of me."

And I never want for anything, and I have a bed to crawl into every night, and I don't have to worry about where my next meal is coming from.

Of course, all of these concerns for Osha were mostly just paranoia. Verse was just going off of what he knew about people who 'lived in alleyways', so all of these things were assumptions. Obviously, the Meloetta seemed very happy and not at all worried about the fact he lived on the streets. Verse just had a hard time wrapping his head around that.

"My trainer's boss isn't very nice, though. I don't think he'd make a very good trainer. There are just some...unhappy people in the world."

Was that why they were homeless, because they didn't want to have bad trainers? That made some sense...and after all, at one point in his life Verse had also been 'homeless', but he at least lived inside a building! He couldn't imagine just sleeping in an alleyway...